The charming, talented and eco-friendly Ditty Bops gave two sold out shows Saturday night at McCabe’s in Santa Monica. Twenty-somethings Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald perform old-timey string band music with an environmentalist flavor. And they don’t just sing about it.
Last summer they rode 4,502 miles from Los Angeles to New York on their Moon Over the Freeway Bicycle Tour.
"We wanted to promote cycling, get in the habit, and experience the country in a different way," said Amanda. Neither woman owns a car, preferring to get around their home city of LA via their new Xtracycles. They even offer discounts to their shows for anyone sporting a bike helmet.
Saturday’s shows featured special guest Ruth Barrett, Amanda’s mom. She is an internationally known fretted dulcimer recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Listening to her soulful The Heart is the Only Nation leaves no doubt where Amanda got her earth-loving values and her lovely voice.
The show opened with some signature camp. Amanda and Abby, dressed in frilly vintage gowns and long flowing wigs, sang a gender-bending version of “Stand By Your Man.” As they harmonized on the Tammy Wynette classic, they stripped off the wigs and long dresses, revealing boys underwear, muscle tees, suspenders and striped ties.
With voices as sweet as honey and harmonies to match, they call their shows "pagan-vaudeville." Accompanied by guitar, mandolin, piano, fiddle, stand-up bass, and lots of wild costume changes, their music blends ragtime, western swing, bluegrass and folk.
Another musical theater number accompanied the new song “Paper or Plastic?”. Abby, Amanda, guest artist Jesca Hoop and several other friends of the band tromped onstage wearing a variety of plastic trash, including a bubble wrap apron, a laundry basket skirt, and a Whole Foods carrier sack hat.
Singing “Plastic knives, plastic spoons, plastic forks and plastic boobs!”, the bubble wrap was torn away to reveal fake plastic breasts, complete with nipple ring. Longtime clown and friend of the family Tuba Heatherton then did a tap dance solo on top of the bubble wrap, accenting each step with a pop pop pop.
“Plastic cars, plastic dogs, plastic rain and plastic smog!” sang Amanda. A cascade of styrofoam packing peanuts rained down on her vinyl umbrella as the rest of the gang tried to cover a blow-up earth ball with plastic food wrap.
“We don’t want paper OR plastic!” they declared. This kind of authentic zaniness encourages their growing cult following.
Bops related products on sale in the lobby included homemade-by-Amanda reusable produce bags. According to Abby, Amanda had whipped a bunch of them out on the sewing machine the night before (using unbleached organic cotton no less). They were selling them for $1 each and encouraged everyone to make their own.
“Put your lettuce in it so you never have to use a nasty plastic bag again!"
